In the June-August 2026 issue of NZ Marketing magazine, we asked agency founders to tell us the story behind why they started their agency, their favourite thing, what they’ve learned and their best advice.
MintHC
- Founders: Iain Harvey and Neil Cameron
- Year founded: 2024
Tell us the story behind founding your agency.
Harvey Cameron was the phoenix of Saatchi and Saatchi Christchurch, which closed June 30, 1996. We took their sign down and put ours up; 1 July 1996. Iain was GM and Neil was Account Director at Saatchi Christchurch. Saatchis were 100% supportive, to the tune of having “In association with Saatchi and Saatchi” along the bottom of our letterhead!
We had media accreditation on day one, and started with six staff, with a forecast of break-even at best! As luck and hard work would have it, the business flourished. We launched Jetstar in NZ, made Dan Carter famous in his Jockeys and peaked at 70 staff. In between the GFC, 11,000 earthquakes and other challenges, we charged on. Mint Design and Harvey Cameron merged in September 2024 to form MintHC, now with a staff of 40ish in Christchurch and Auckland.
Iain Harvey and Neil Cameron founded Harvey Cameron Advertising in 1996. They merged with Mint to become MintHC in 2024.
What’s you favourite thing about running your own agency?
NC: The satisfaction of making a difference for clients and brands, the fabulous crazy people, the work…..and lunch. The day-to-day action in the trenches is mostly, the best fun. That’s why I still do it, part-time with the new owners Shayne and Alice Moore.
We ran the biggest independent operation in the country by staff numbers, not billings. I sat on the agency’s association board (CAANZ, now CCC). The members were from the big shops and when they found out how big we were, they could not believe it. Loved that. Punching above our weight from the South Island! Iain and I ran a very successful and satisfying operation.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned?
IH: Trust is an often overused word, however with both staff and clients it keeps coming up. Trust your creatives, trust your people to deliver and when you have clients who trust you on your thoughts on strategy and direction you have a great working relationship.
Experience across all areas of the business… I started as a creative in the UK, client management in the 80s and 90s, staff management in the early 90s meant I knew what I wanted to do with my own business.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received or given out?
NC: I was sitting in a swimming pool one day on holiday (few and far between) and got chatting to the guy beside me, who was in his last year of a five-year earn out with Omnicom. He had an 80-person design shop in Seattle and was much older than me. At that time we had about 45 staff. I said what are your three best tips?
He turned and looked straight at me, pushed his right index finger hard between my eyes and said: “Never, ever… ever, take your eye off the ball.” The combination of touch from a stranger and the bluntness of the message have stayed with me forever. He was 150% correct! Be it staff, work, clients… when it’s yours, you just cannot ever relent.
Anything else we should know?
IH: While size is not everything, it can matter. It was a real achievement to be acknowledged as New Zealand’s largest Independent Ad Agency in the mid 2000s. We achieved it through hard work, winning a lot of new clients to give us a portfolio of superb national brands from little old Christchurch. We had clients based from Auckland through to Invercargill. Now it is a different world.
I sold down to Neil after 20 years or so. He then sold out to someone a few years later who sold on to someone else a few years ago. The business they are in is certainly not the business we started 30 years ago, but then the world is a different place and certainly so is advertising and marketing.
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 87, June-August 2026. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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